Getting tourists out on country

Over the last few years we've seen a number of Indigenous run tourism businesses start up here in the centre.

Small, family run businesses that take tourists out on country to experience culture first-hand.

The tours often involve gathering bush tucker, spotting bird and animal tracks, learning Dreaming Stories and sometimes camping out over night. Simply meeting and spending time with a local Indigenous guide is a highlight for many tourists.

Places like Ipolera, west of Hermannsburg and Black Tank north of Alice Springs have all become involved in marketing their culture for the local tourism industry.

It's a great way for families to gain financial independence and for communities to strengthen culture and language.

But how easy is it to set up such a business?

And what are the challenges involved in getting tourists out on country?

Ricky Orr has been running Rainbow Valley Cultural Tours for two years now. Coming towards the end of his second tourist season Ricky says business has so far been slow.

"Business has been a bit slow, not many numbers. Obviously it takes a few years for it to get up and running," says Ricky.

Ricky finds that linking with larger, well established companies is the way forward. Start up costs, transport, marketing and simply getting your name out there are all challenges for any small business.

But with Indigenous cultural tourism a bit of a buzz word in tourism circles at the moment, how much help is actually given to small operators?

Neil Hermes, the CEO of Discovery Eco Tours, has a long history with tourism in the Centre. He was responsible for setting up the Uluru base walk as an alternative to climbing the rock. Neil also operates the recently established Indigenous tourism hub in Alice Springs.

Neil says the challenges for Indigenous tourism operators are similar to any small business.

"In Australia, any business if they survive after a year or two, they're likely to survive into the future. But there's a huge drop off in those first few years in any business."

For tourism operators, setting up a new business may be even more challenging in what Neil describes as a fairly conservative market.

"Tourism has very long lead times and the tourism industry is very conservative in how it picks up new products so any tourism operator faces those sort of start up challenges."

However, for those selling Indigenous tourism products, the wait may be well worth it.

"There's a huge interest in Indigenous tourism, internationally tourists are seeking the experiences in going out with people like Ricky."

"The challenge we have is to get those products into the mainstream tourism industry and that takes many many years...It takes several years just to get into a brochure," says Neil.